Monday, 7 December 2015

With two Mariah Carey videos to ruminate on today, I thought it would be best for all concerned to combine them into one mega Mariah post. Could there any better way to start your week than with some Mimi? (“Drunk” is the only other acceptable answer to that question.)

Both videos involve Mariah covering old material, so you know what that means… unavoidable comparisons! And that's never good. With that in mind, I'm only going to focus on zee pozitivez.
First up we have the chanteuse's feature on Rick Ross' new album Black Market. Having worked together numerous times prior to this (Triumphant/Touch My Body remix) the bodied rapper finally cajoled the Diva into joining him on one of his records. But instead of having her lay down an original hook, the rapper called on her to rework and re-sing parts of her hit, Can’t Let Go. And thus the bastard child Can't Say No was born.

The vocals sound slightly processed on it, and the song is ultimately bland. However Mimi still manages to hit those old notes in 2015, albeit with a different tonal quality to the voice, so let's be grateful for that.

Similarly on a nostalgia tip, this weekend saw the Diva giving another oldie some love. This time it was in a live setting, where she joined Busta Rhymes on stage to sing their 2003 hit, I Know What You Want.

The falsetto cracking almost immediately had me taking a funny turn and reaching for my smelling salts, but Mariah shifted gear, bringing the vocal into chest voice and smartly transposing the song to a more comfortable range. I'm not sure she even was expecting to sing, but Busta saying he wanted to hear her- and the backing cutting out to give her space - left little choice.

Still, she rose to the challenge and delivered. It's just a shame it ended when it did. Mimi seemed to be relaxing and getting ready for some ad libbing.